BY APP Staff Writers ERIK LARSEN and AMANDA OGLESBY - Since superstorm Sandy struck, Twilight Lake floods often.

The storm dumped sand into the lake when it pushed feet of water through this Bay Head neighborhood in 2012,  raising the already shallow lake bed. In the three years since, Twilight Lake has overflowed its banks during heavy rain and nor'easters.

“We have a low part of the town, and it floods constantly," said Bay Head Mayor Bill Curtis. “We need to ... keep the water in Twilight Lake instead of on people’s property.”

Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., plans to help.

Twilight Lake is one of 14 flood-prone lakes and bodies of water in Ocean and Monmouth counties expected to be included in a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers study of New Jersey’s back bays, Smith announced Thursday.

In a letter to the heads of the Army corps' Philadelphia and New York districts, Smith wrote that the study should include the Deal Lake Watershed in Ocean Township; Wesley Lake in Neptune; Fletcher Lake in Neptune and Bradley Beach; Sylvan Lake in Bradley Beach and Avon; Silver Lake in Avon and Belmar; Spring Lake in its namesake borough; Lake Como in Belmar and the adjacent boroughs of Lake Como and Spring Lake; Wreck Pond in the boroughs of Spring Lake, Spring Lake Heights and Sea Girt; and Little Silver Lake and the Lake of the Lillies, both in Point Pleasant Beach. 

“Though lakes like Sylvan Lake and Wreck Pond may not normally be tidally-connected, after Sandy all of the lakes and the ocean were one big body of water, so I know it is imperative to the coastal municipalities that the non-tidal lakes would be included in the study of how to help combat flooding, and that is why I pushed to have them included,” Smith wrote.

The New Jersey Back Bays study is the result of a larger, comprehensive, post-Sandy study called the North American Comprehensive Coastal Study, which Smith supported in testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water in March 2013, according to a prepared statement from Jeff Sagnip, the congressman's spokesman.

“Superstorm Sandy highlighted the significant health and safety hazards associated with storm damage to homes and public property,” Smith wrote.  “We will continue to work to bring federal support to the table to make these coastal lakes and our communities safer.”

Point Pleasant Beach Mayor Vincent Barrella said the three borough lakes included in the study — Lake Louise, Little Silver Lake and the Lake of the Lillies — can flood with little instigation from the weather.

"We have dredged and taken some steps on our own to alleviate that issue, but it is still a major issue, especially when you get the tidal surge coming in from high tide going into Lake Louise, and that spills over into Little Silver Lake," he said. "Any heavy rain events, it's a problem. If we can do something to alleviate that, that is fantastic."

In Bay Head, Twilight Lake's inclusion in the study might eventually bring relief to homeowners   who have also struggled with flooding for years.

"I'm very happy that he (Smith) is including it," said Curtis, the mayor.

In July, Smith announced that $3.58 million in federal Sandy aid would be added to $2 million previously awarded by the Fish and National Wildlife Services for Wreck Pond.  That funding is currently being used to construct a secondary outfall pipe and living shoreline along the pond, which will help protect residents and businesses in the area from future flooding, Sagnip said.

The above article was published on Page 3 of the Asbury Park Press on Nov. 16, 2015: http://www.app.com/story/news/local/ocean-county/sandy-recovery/2015/11/15/smith-goes-washington/75695634/